We were lucky to catch up with Samantha Slater recently and have shared our conversation below.
Samantha, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Thank you so much for having me, I am honored and excited to dive in. To answer your question:I haven’t 🙂 and I don’t know that anyone really ever does. What I try to do is make sure that when I feel that way, it doesn’t own me. And if I am struggling I pretend I am a friend of myself and I am selling their work not mine. I have always found it easier to be someone else cheerleader and I find this enormously helpful when I am having a lot of doubts.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a one woman show working out of my small studio in Seattle, WA. My work is inspired by my childhood growing up in South Africa, as well as the desert landscapes of the United States. I work with hand picked ethically sourced gemstones and recycled metals and have a zero waste studio.
I also teach one and two person jewelry making classes out of said studio, and I love to share my knowledge and help others learn new skills.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I figured out my company values early on in my business and I always use those as reference when thinking through issues, concerns or if I want to work with someone or another business. They are:
Community
Courage
Commitment
I work with small businesses and support small businesses as much as I can. I believe in community over competition.
You have to be courageous in your small business if you it to grow, you have to take risks and leaps and make bug decisions. It’s challenging but if you have a strong community of other like minded small businesses it helps you feel less alone and less scared. I ahve very good friends with several other small business humans and have a tight knit group of jewelry making small business friends. We talk strategy, process, employees, shows, money, succeses, failures etc etc. I would be lost without them.
You have to commit 100% to your business if you really want to succeed and in that you have to commit 100% to yourself. You have to show up every day, even on the hard days and try your best.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
Yes, I would love help with SEO and website clean up. I would also love some help with marketing and strategy for Instagram and my newsletter. I cannot do it all and would love to be able to get some like minded help in these areas.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.samanthaslaterstudio.com
- Instagram: @samanthaslaterstudio
- Facebook: @samanthaslaterstudio
- Other: TikTok: @samanthaslaterstudio
Image Credits
Max Krubsack and Megan Hooks
